Asian Soups: Ginger, Chicken, Fish, and Egg

My wife and I make many soups. Far from being a soup nazi, I am very flexible in the way we approach our recipes. Many of them are seasoned to taste and can be made with variation. We enjoy making ginger, chicken, fish, and most recently egg soups. One of my favorites is a marinara recipe, and even more recently a mung bean soup (Among our other bean soup creations). Today I will focus on the egg soups; in particular, a quail egg soup. We have done other recipes such as the egg drop, which are thickened with anato and do not have that yellow hue when done by scratch. This quail egg recipe is a lighter soup with a broth-like consistency. It takes on an orange hue when stirred, as it contains squash as well. Start by dicing 1 cup of butter nut squash into cubes. Then dice three stalks of green onion. Follow this with slicing 2” pieces of string beans (Approx. 1.5 cups worth) and 1-2 oz. of fresh ginger. One pack of beech mushrooms will be needed. This is around 2.5 oz., and they must be separated as they have a common root. Gather 2 lemon grass leaves, which can be cut into 2-3”” strips (They are long). Only 4-5 strips will be necessary, as the flavor permeates throughout the pot when cooking. Finally, get one can of quail eggs to be drained and rinsed. This recipe will require two quarts of water. Seasoning will be with sparing amounts of salt to taste and mushroom seasoning to taste. An alternative to mushroom seasoning for those with allergies is chicken Boullion (Also used sparingly due to high sodium content). As a side note, the beech mushrooms, quail eggs, mushroom seasoning, and lemon grass are staples which can often be found in Asian markets. Make sure to use raw string beans and not the canned variety. These can also be found in Asian markets. I’ve found that ingredients such as fresh ginger are more commonly found in general markets these days. Add all the ingredients to a large pot, bring to an initial boil, down to a slow boil, then simmer. During the simmering phase, add seasoning to taste. We usually use at least 1 tbs mushroom seasoning. Total cooking time is 30-45 minutes. This soup. can serve as an entrée. As there is an average 3-6 eggs per serving, the protein content is adequate. Sides such as gyoza (pot stickers) or rice go very well with the dish. Happy cooking!